Mary-Louise Hoffman
Panasonic Group‘s energy business plans to invest $4 billion to establish a manufacturing facility in De Soto, Kansas, for rechargeable car batteries and expects to create 4,000 jobs through the potential project.
The state government approved an application by the company to receive an Attracting Powerful Economic Expansion incentive to build the lithium-ion electric vehicle battery factory, Panasonic said Wednesday.
“This is the largest private investment in Kansas history,” Gov. Laura Kelly said in a tweet.
Panasonic unveiled its project with the Sunflower State five years after the firm’s North American energy arm started making Li-ion batteries at a Sparks, Nevada, plant.
The proposed Kansas location is still subject to approval by the board of directors of Panasonic Holdings Corp.
Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, cited the company’s investment plan as an example of an initiative that supports the Biden administration’s strategy to grow the domestic manufacturing workforce.
“Over the last year, construction of new manufacturing facilities has increased by 116 percent,” Deese said.
“And since President Biden took office, we’ve added 574,000 manufacturing jobs, including more manufacturing jobs created in 2021 than in any year in nearly 30 years.”
